Monday, 31 October 2016

Scourge

Scourge is the
latest novella from Gary Fry and is published by Snowbooks.. It’s another potent
blend of philosophy and horror, telling the tale of Lee Parker, a working class
boy from Bradford made good having earned a PhD in psychology at Oxford.
Gleefully ignoring Thomas Wolfe’s warning, he does go home again, returning to
the city of his birth for a meeting on – ironically (or not, ha ha!) - social
mobility.

Here he bumps into an old schoolfriend, John Marsh whose
work on a building site has led to an eerie encounter with a strange creature,
not quite human, with excessively jointed limbs and yellow eyes. His interest
piqued, Lee’s unofficial research uncovers the legend of the Felachnids, hybrid
creatures, part spider part cat said to roam the wilds of northern England.
Thus, he travels to the village of Nathen, to speak to a local expert and
determine whether the creatures are real or just a story spun by the residents –
and finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue.

Such is the main thrust of the narrative but, this is a Gary
Fry story and so it’s the ideas which are important here, rather than
plot. Which sounds like a criticism. It isn’t. There are few who can use
allusion and allegory as well as Gary, framing philosophical concepts in an
entertaining narrative and such is the case here. Plot devices are a joy to
behold when done properly but here, as with so many of Gary’s stories, the plot
itself is a device – the means to introduce and discuss philosophical, sometimes
psychological topics in an accessible – and yes, entertaining – way.

To be honest, there’s a veritable smorgasbord of ideas going
on here (to coin a well-established term from another culture), chief among
them – to my untutored mind at least – the ideas of chaos and order and the
conflict between them; control and the lack of it. Much is made of drug use in
this novella, (Lee himself directly affected by it) with its inherent loss of
control and the dangers thereof.

It’s probably the most political piece of Gary’s I’ve read,
with much made of the multicultural aspects of Bradford portrayed as a massive
positive and references to “fear of the other” – a trait exploited by the Felachnids. There’s a passing reference to Isis and the implication that a
minority can, if their methods are potent enough, have a massive influence upon
society, again, a tactic put to devastating use by the monsters of the piece.

A symbol is referenced frequently in the novella, a sigil
used by the Felachnids. It’s angular shape is given the possible explanation of
representing their jointed limbs but the similarity to another, extremely well
known symbol is difficult to discount.

Scourge is a first
person narrative as, I believe, it has to be – allowing the theories and
thought processes of Lee as he uncovers more and more about the Felachnids to
be shared with the reader. Inherent within this structure, and pretty much
unavoidable however, is the tendency to “tell” rather than “show” and this is
perhaps most apparent in a set-piece involving an encounter with one of the Felachnids. It’s a creepy scene –all scuttling limbs and hissing – but would
have been perhaps even more effective if told in a third person narrative. A
minor criticism however.

I enjoyed Scourge immensely,
it’s a book that engages the reader both emotionally and intellectually – and you
can’t get much better than that.